I had a feeling that there was something that had potential in the previous week's workshop where I was playing with the pieces of wood in tights but it needed more development, experimentation. I didn't want the wood to be so visible, it felt a little clumsy, obvious. I started to play with the wire and see if by using a continuous piece could I twist it, turn it and soft ends of the bends wouldn't pierce the tights but also create a similar visual look to the wood.
I had to cut the wire into smaller strips as the bent wire just wouldn't work, it was too flexible, which was great to manipulate but wouldn't hold the shape I wanted, the tights were pushing it back. So I looked cutting the wire into strips, as per the wood, it was just whether the tights would stop the wire poking through. I also found that by cutting off the legs I could create longer pieces, I didn't need to attached them as I could simply overlap them.
By extending the length they started to lose their 'tightness' look and become something else. I had initially kept to black tights to keep things simple but did discuss the idea of getting some white ons, or material that I could machine into tubes and treat in the same way. Something about the monochrome combination appealed to me.
I created a few 'spiky tubes' and took them to a larger white space to hang and play with. Initially I had intended to just hang them straight, slightly way from the wall and see how they looked but on doing so I realised that they worked better when twisted, combined and intertwined. So I created some more and played again with the arrangement. I also looked at creating other tubes using other types of stretchy material to see if this would also combine with the black tights. I wasn't sure it would work as it felt too much of a mixture of colour and patterns. However I felt it added to the collection rather than detracting.
Again I played with the combination to see how it could work suspended. This gave a multitude of options as far as composition was concerned and I could keep adding and playing to see how best to display. It also confirmed in my mind that this piece and whatever it developed into would become my piece for the thematic exhibition we were doing as part of this unit in the next week or so.
I also anted to experiment with the material and see whether it should be dipped, painted, coated in something. Latex? Plater? Paint? More experiments required. More play. More decisions.